China opens first clinic for transgender youths
China has launched its first medical clinic to treat transgender children and adolescents. The state-backed media outlet The Global Times reported that the clinic opened at the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai saying it will “serve as a bridge between transgender children, parents, doctors and various circles of society. The celebratory coverage of the event in Chinese media is at odds with recent works to limit LGBTQ activism in China. While homosexuality has been legal since 1997, there are still considerable restrictions for LGBTQ people in China.
There are five options for an LGBTQ National Monument in Canada
The Canadian federal government is asking its people to choose from between five potential designs for a new monument in Ottawa to honour victims of its LGBTQ2+ purge. The new monument is a partnership between the federal government and the LGBT Purge Fund, created from a class-action lawsuit against the government. This lawsuit was settled in 2018 on behalf of thousands of queer people in the armed services and public service who were fired, or had their careers sideline from 1955-1996 because of their sexual orientation or gender status. You can read more about the proposals and class-action here.
Kim Cattrall to join the ‘Queer as Folk’ reboot
The Peacock network in the US has announced that Kim Cattrall has joined the cast of the Queer as Folk reboot as a recurring guest star. Cattrall’s character is described as being a “martini-soaked, high society Southern debutante with trailer park roots”. The rebooted version of the show will be set in New Orleans and centred on a group of diverse friends whose lives are transformed in the aftermath of tragedy.
Study shows a woman’s own body may have cured her of HIV
A 30-year-old Argentine woman appears to have become the second documented person whose body may have eliminated her HIV infection on its own. According to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal, scans of more than 1 billion of the woman’s cells detected no viable virus even though for most of the time she was not undergoing antiretroviral therapy. The finding raises the possibility that a person’s own immune system may in rare cases prevent the virus from copying itself. The only other person known to have eliminated HIV via their own immune system is an American woman called Loreen Willenberg. Three other people have had HIV eliminated from their bodies via stem cell transplants.
South Carolina governor calls for LGBTQ book to be banned in schools
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster urged his state Department of Education this week to remove a book about gender identity from school shelves, calling it “obscene and pornographic,” and to “investigate” similar content. The award-winning book called Gender Queer: A Memoir, chronicles nonbinary author Maia Kobabe’s journey of self-identity but is being challenged for its graphic illustrations of LGBTQ sexual experiences. The governor’s request is the latest in a number of instances of government and school officials in various states aiming to rid books from school libraries that contain LGBTQ and race related content.
